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All posts for the month January, 2009

We Filipinos, as compared to other nationalities, I believe take the most pleasure in making fun of not being able to speak proper English. Japanese people don’t care if they speak broken English. Chinese people couldn’t care less either. Same goes with Europeans. But since we love everything American, we deride countrymen who aren’t as adept in speaking our adopted second language. You are somehow less in the eyes of most, if you make English grammatical errors. Some even wear speaking in pidgin Tagalog as a badge of “sosy-ness”, but few would wave their bad English with pride. Weird huh? But let’s face it, we find it funny.

I saw this video that a friend posted on Facebook, it’s a 12-minute film called, “Signs”, directed by Patrick Hughes. It’s 12 minutes of sheer bliss. I can’t post it though, it’s only post-able on Facebook, but you can view the film by clicking on this link. Just click on the British flag icon to set the language to English, then enter, then click on “Signs”. Even if you don’t enjoy it as much as I did, I can guarantee it’s at least an enjoyable 12 minutes spent. The teaser goes, “Where do you find love? If we knew, we would all know where to look. Sometimes all you need is a sign.” I have so much to say about the film, but I don’t want to give anything away until you’ve seen it.

I’m not a fan of slang, but I can’t argue with language as a dynamic creature. Some words I just loathe, no matter how widely used or accepted. While some words I love, no matter how much purists fulminate against it. That’s the beauty of language.

August 11, 2008 → The Top Ten Slang Words

Tcams – FAP: Futrue Abogadong Panget

Amber – kuala lumpur: lugar ng mga poor or squatters area.

Tani – Zagu: mga taong sipsip.

No name – Pasaload: officemates who pass their work load to co-workers.

No name – Pumpernickel: she’s so cheap you can pump her for a nickle.

Hannah – In our office we call a group of people “BeeGees”. Short for “balot gang”. Sila ang nauunang magpabalot ng food during xmas parties kahit di pa tapos ang party. Sad thing, they belong to the management team.

Aubree – MASDAK: maskuladong pandak.

Bilog – We call some couples who are successful w/ their careers but are having trouble in their marriages, “DIZO”, which means, “double income, zero orgasm”.

2009 will be an interesting year for me. It’s the year of the Earth Ox, and according to Chinese astrology, my sign, the sheep, will have the worst year of the 12 animals. But on the other hand, according to Western astrology, my sign, Gemini, will have the most awesomely fantastic year! So which is which? Will my good Gemini fortune counteract my bad sheep luck? Or will the sheep trample on whatever good tidings my Gemini stars bring? Which side wins?

This is why, although I’m fascinated by astrology in general, I don’t really bite it hook, line, and sinker. The romantic side of me believes in the general idea of destiny, in a sense that I can subscribe to the idea that I was destined to say, be a broadcaster for instance, but the logical side of me eschews the concept of rigid predestination, in a sense that everything I do is already set to unfold, regardless of what I do to change it. That’s why it’s kismet in a way, that one of the entries in this morning’s Top Ten was a quote from Paolo Coelho saying something that goes in the vein of, the biggest lie in the world is that at some point you lose control of your destiny and surrender to fate. I choose to believe that although we are “destined” to walk a certain path, the final word on the matter relies on what we do, and what we decide on a daily basis, one Sisyphean step at a time. I don’t believe in a cruel God who would be so whimsical to have us walk the earth like wind-up zombies, playing out some celestial script, with no voice whatsoever as to the outcome. We are born, we play the part assigned to us, and we die. I choose to believe in a God who gives us the power to choose, to decide as to how our lives will unfold. Of course I’m still somewhat old school when it comes to my belief that there are still omnipotent strings being pull by a Higher Power, but the strings are loose enough to give us sovereignty over our own lives.

So I don’t really sweat it when I read foreboding predictions, just as I don’t congratulate myself too much when the opposite is foretold. I treat it as partly entertainment, partly curiosity, partly supernatural, partly parlor trick, and partly business venture. Maybe the truth is a little bit of everything. My goal is not to prove or debunk astrology. My goal is to live my life as best as I know how. And I will try my darnedest best to have a great year despite the odds. 2008 was a difficult year; I don’t plan to have another one of those in a long time.

So yesterday I ate my kiat-kiat, tonight I will pray to God, and tomorrow I will live like this is the best year EVER.

We’re now on the second part of our exhibit, “Fourground”, and we’ve moved from Shangri-la Mall to The Podium. The Podium exhibit will feature a different set of photos. This time around, we’re showing some travel photographs. The Podium run started today, January 25, and will run until Saturday, January 31, at the 4th floor.

I wasn’t able to join the group in dismantling the Shangri-la exhibit, but I was able to join them later at the set-up in Podium. It was a lot of work, fixing the panels, finding the right layout, putting up the new set of pics, etc. We finished almost 4am!

I had quite an adventure midway into the set-up. When I arrived at the mall, we ordered coffee at Starbucks, so I had a bladder full of caffeinated liquid as early as 11pm. At around 2:30 am, the pressure on my bladder was unbearable! I tried holding in the weewee until after we finished, but it was too herculean a task for my wimpy bladder. The problem was, all the toilets in the ENTIRE mall were closed by that time. The ONLY toilet open was at the level 5 BASEMENT! So from the 4th floor, I’d have to go to the ground floor, then from there I’d have to go 5 more floors down. I’d have to walk a total of 9 floors down just to pee! It was a difficult decision. I really needed to go badly, but it was a long way down, in a deserted mall, with most of the lights turned off. I was so tempted to pay manong guard to accompany me, but whatever dignity I had left stopped me from doing so. So I bit the bullet, and started my long trek down.

It wasn’t so bad walking down to the ground floor, with only the occasional yelp everytime I thought I saw a mannequin move. From the ground floor, I had to go outside of the mall and walk down to the basement levels via the car ramp! Not only was it creepy and devoid of any humanoid life form, but only the first 2 levels had any semblance of light! From level 3 down, IT WAS PITCH BLACK. It was either I pee in my pants on the ramp or I move on. I took out my cellphone as my only source of light and walked down the ramps for three more levels, which felt like I was marching into the belly of Hades, and walked blindly around the 5th level looking for what seemed like a needle in a haystack. Finally I found the toilet (which was a miracle in itself given that the whole basement floor was huge) and immediately drained the main vein, in what seemed like an eternity of pleasure. After the adrenalin of having to pee went down, panic finally set in. The walk back up was going to be a LONG one. I took it one blind step at a time. One floor became two, then three, and before I knew it I was back inside the mall, and into the safe company of my friends back on the 4th floor. That was quite an adventure for a scaredy-cat like me. Moments like those are what cheap horror B-movies are made of. I was just glad I survived it.

Delle and I attended the pre-house party media event at the Adidas Originals concept store in Trinoma last January 16. They’re celebrating their 60th anniversary with a house party on February 27 at the Embassy Super Club (which we will be going to), and the event last January 16 was like a pre-event. Fran of Jumpstart was also there and it was cool being part of the event. We ‘ll get to wear Adidas outfits during the house partyin Feb, but we also got to shop during last week’s event with big discounts.

So we’d like to thank Leah, Pauland, Cheche, Phoebe, Aljay, Pat, Kat, and KM of Primetime Creatives, the event organizer, and Jillian, Kath, Pam, Xavier, Nina, Mitch, Dianne, Connie, Aries, and Susan of Adidas Philippines for inviting us to be part of the event!